The Golden Triangle
The Golden Triangle is the 2nd episode of Season 1 in the original version of MacGyver. Synopsis While retrieving a poison-filled canister from a crash site in Burma, Angus MacGyver is forced to take on a powerful drug lord when he is mistaken for a narcotics agent. Summary Opening Gambit A man stands in a deserted junkyard, carrying a briefcase with handcuffs attached. As MacGyver approaches the scene, another car pulls in and two men exit the vehicle. The three men review several documents, and a transaction is about to be made when MacGyver topples over a stack of car tires. Eluding the men trying to find him, MacGyvers uses an electro-magnetic crane to lift the briefcase containing the documents out of their reach. MacGyver quickly exits the crane and grabs the briefcase, dodging the gunfire of two of the men. As MacGyver ducks between two cars, the men begin their pursuit. MacGyver escapes detection by hiding in the driver's seat of a semi-wrecked car. He exits the vehicle, only to be blindsided. When he comes to, his wrists are tied and he is lying in the back seat of another car in the junkyard. MacGyver sees the three men wave over a massive forklift, which scoops up the car and deposits it in the car crusher. MacGyver rips off the back seat of the car and escapes to the trunk. At just the right moment, MacGyver uses the crushing pressure and a crowbar to pop open the trunk and escape, without the men seeing. MacGyver then frees himself and uses the forklift to intercept the car containing the documents as it attempts to leave the junkyard. He pins the car in mid-air against a large pole and uses a pay phone to call his superiors, and advises them to come 'pick them up', as it were. Act One Angus MacGyver is sunbathing on an empty, pristine beach. Suddenly the sun is blocked out by an Air Force General named Hawkins, and he begins to describe the particulars of a mission in Burma. A cargo plane has crashed in the jungle, containing a cannister holding a 'toxic poison', capable of killing 1000 acres of plant life, animals and people. MacGyvers orders are to recover the cannister or destroy it if necessary. Once MacGyver is on the ground in Burma, he has only 24 hours to locate and recover the cannister before the only chopper to take him out of Burma arrives. MacGyver comes across a line of slave laborers marching from the poppy fields, with their captors keeping watch, armed with machetes. An old man named Prasert stumbles and falls on the side of the path, and is nearly beaten before being helped up by his family. Moments later, a young boy named Chan wearing an Air Force baseball hat antagonizes a soldier in charge named Truang, and is chased into the jungle. Seeing this, MacGyver puuls the child behind a tree, keeping him out of sight from Truang. Asking Chan about where he found the hat, MacGyver is then led to the crash site. Upon searching the wreckage, MacGyver finds that the cannister is gone, and as he exits the shell of the plane, he is captured by Truang and his men. Suspended by his hands and feet from a large pole, MacGyver is carried into the nearby village. MacGyver is interrogated on the suspicion that he is a narcotics agent. General Narai arrives in a sleek black helicopter. Carrying a riding whip and wearing a beret and dramatic sunglasses, he makes quite an appearance. He approaches MacGyver, but does nothing for the moment. Narai inquires about the poppy harvest, as well as the downed airplanes. Several soldiers pull back a tarp covering a large bundle, revealing a large weapons cache and other items, including a life vest, emergency life raft, coil of rope, three sticks of dynamite, and the cannister in question (labelled "Controlled Materials SFT-42 - Danger"). Narai is pleased, and plans to convert his helicopter into a highly armed vehicle. Narai addresses the entire village, threatening them that if the crop is not harvested in five days, and he suffers for that, then they will suffer as well. Narai then instructs Truang and the other solders to tie up MacGyver in the sun and elements at the head of the trail to the fields, with no food or water, as a means of inspiring the workers to complete their work. Act Two As the scene begins, MacGyver is stretched out in a clearing, tied to a bamboo lattice, in the full sun. Lin and Chan approach MacGyver from the edge of the clearing and Chan keeps watch while Lin soothes MacGyver and his wounds with a damp cloth. They flee suddenly as a soldier approaches. Back in the village, the villagers are working as hard as they can to prepare the harvest. The boy steals MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife from the guard house and brings it to him. Another soldier is sent to relieve MacGyver's guard from duty, but walks into a trap, noticing the Swiss Army Knife on the ground, but not the unconscious soldier strapped to a tree with a belt, or MacGyver's simulated bondage. As the soldier approaches him, MacGyver gives him a solid chop in the back, retreives his Swiss Army Knife and belt, and escapes into the jungle. MacGyver returns to the village and surveys the scene. Using his Swiss Army Knife, he cuts the rope holding the village's pig pen closed. He then jumps in the pen and shoos the pigs out, causing them to run amok all over the village. As the villagers and soldiers scramble to recapture them, MacGyver slips unnoticed under the tarp and finds the canister. While under the tarp, MacGyver constructs a device using the life vest, emergency emergency raft, emergency flare, airplane tire, and a series of wires. Pulling the cord to the life vest as he exits the tarp, MacGyver has rigged everything so that as the life vest inflates, it triggers the inflation of the life raft by pulling on the attached wires between the two objects. In a similar fashion, as the life raft inflates, it pulls the cord on a flare wedged under the airplane tire, lighting it and blowing up the tire. Outside, the soldiers are watching the tarp rapidly inflate as the tire blows up. In that instant, MacGyver uses a bamboo pole to vault from behind and dropkick a soldier standing near a military jeep. He steals the jeep and launches it forward, jumping out and using another flare to ignite the jeep as it rolls to a stop. MacGyver takes off, and is aided by a young man named Ming, who disables a soldier while MacGyver drives another truck around the ceter of the villages and crashes into a building. Truang escapes into the jungle, and MacGyver rejoins the villagers, and is confronted with a new problem: what will the villagers do when Narai arrives for the crop? Act Three MacGyver and the villagers discuss their options. Some of the villagers want to fight back, and ask MacGyver to instruct them how to use the rifles left behind. MacGyver declines, and leaves to meet his helicopter. The young boy follows MacGyver to the landing site, and is surprised to find that MacGyver stays behind while the helicopter leaves with the toxin. When MacGyver returns, all of the villagers except for Anek agree to let MacGyver help them fend off Narai and his men. With his help, they begin to devise a series of defenses, everyone busying himself with one task or another, including a reluctant Anek. A lookout flashes a predetermined signal from a tree with a small mirror, and the villagers prepare themselves for the attack. Act Four Narai's soldiers approach the village in a number of military jeeps. Perched atop a high hill, MacGyver addresses Truang and his men, letting them know that the villagers intend on defending themselves. Their response is to fire at the hilltop, and MacGyver dives for cover, as Truang and his men continue on their way. Ming walks out from the side of the road and throws a rock at one of the jeeps, getting them to chase him off of the road, toward a tree where up above, Chan and another child sit with large bags of snakes. As the jeep passes underneath the tree, the children drop the snakes into the mens' laps, and as they panic, villagers rush the jeep from all sides and take them captive. MacGyver and Chan jump in the jeep, and drive away. Elsewhere in the jungle, Truang and his men approach what seems to be the leafy covering of a large ditch. Without checking it, they change course and immediately fall into the real ditch. MacGyver drives up alongside the ditch and taunts Truang before driving away from the them. MacGyver and the old man watch as Truang and his men approach another of their roadblocks, a large tree branch placed in the middle of the road. As the soldiers move the log, strings attached to it are pulled taut, causing at least six assault rifles to begin firing, aimed at the tires of the line of jeeps on the road. All but the tires of the lead jeep deflate, and the men run for cover, before realizing the trick, moving the log, and continuing on their way. MacGyver sends a signal to Ming, who releases a massive log suspended in the air, whcih flies at Truang and his men in the surviving jeep, making them dive for cover. Truang and his men reach the village on foot. As they approach the center of the village, Chan uses the accelerator of a jeep to push a mixture of fire ash and rice alcohol out of holes bored into buried bamboo poles. The resulting smoke disables Truang and his men, and the villagers easily overtake them, wearing masks to protect their faces. Finally only Truang is left unapprehended, and Ming single-handedly takes him down, winning respect and admiration from the other villagers. Without warning, Narai's helicopter flies over the village, shooting wildly and causing MacGyver to take cover underneath a truck. While Narai prepares for another strafing run, MacGyver heads back to the tarp and finds more wire. After the helicopter comes back for a second pass, MacGyver secures one end of the wire to a crank wheel attached to the truck. When Narai approaches a third time, MacGyver springs into action, making a running leap to grab onto the landing skid while attaching the other end of the wire to it. MacGyver jumps down from the helicopter and begins to wind the crank, forcing the helicopter to land. MacGyver and Narai then engage in hand to hand combat, and when MacGyver knocks him down, Narai leaps back up and pulls out a long knife, but trips over the end of the landing and manages to impale himself in the chest as he falls to the ground. Having freed the villagers, MacGyver and several others stand together, as the camera zooms and fades to black, instead of the more common cheesy freeze frame. Memorable Quotes *When MacGyver jumps after finding a snake in his jeep: Chan: "Are you afraid of snakes, MacGyver?" MacGyver: "Nope, I just don't like being around them!" MacGyverisms :A complete list of problems solved by MacGyver is also available. * While tied up in the back seat of a car about to be crushed, MacGyver rips off the back seat of the car and escapes to the trunk. At just the right moment, MacGyver uses the crushing pressure and a crowbar to pop open the trunk and escape. * Using his Swiss Army Knife, he cuts the rope holding the village's pig pen closed. He then jumps in the pen and shoos the pigs out, causing them to run amok all over the village. As the villagers and soldiers scramble to recapture them, MacGyver slips unnoticed under the tarp and finds the canister. While under the tarp, MacGyver constructs a device using the life vest, emergency raft, emergency flare, airplane tire, and a series of wires. Pulling the cord to the life vest as he exits the tarp, MacGyver has rigged everything so that as the life vest inflates, it triggers the inflation of the life raft by pulling on the attached wires between the two objects. In a similar fashion, as the life raft inflates, it pulls the cord on a flare wedged under the airplane tire, lighting it and blowing up the tire. * To disable an enemy jeep passing underneath a tree, two children drop bags full of snakes into the mens' laps, and as they panic, villagers rush the jeep from all sides and take them captive. * Truang and his men approach what seems to be the leafy covering of a large ditch. Without checking it, they change course and immediately fall into the real ditch. * Truang and his men approach another roadblock, a large tree branch placed in the middle of the road. As the soldiers move the log, strings attached to it are pulled taut, causing at least six assault rifles to begin firing, aimed at the tires of the line of jeeps on the road. All but the tires of the lead jeep deflate, and the men run for cover. * Chan uses the accelerator of a jeep to push a mixture of fire ash and rice alcohol out of holes bored into buried bamboo poles. The resulting smoke disables Truang and his men. * MacGyver secures one end of a wire to a crank wheel attached to a truck parked in the center of the village. When Narai approaches in his helicopter, MacGyver springs into action, making a running leap to grab onto the landing skid while attaching the other end of the wire to it. MacGyver jumps down from the helicopter and begins to wind the crank, forcing the helicopter to land. Notes and Trivia * Most of the crewmembers in this and other future episodes did not work on the Pilot episode. Bloopers * In the scene where MacGyver sends a flaming jeep in the direction of the soldiers, a cable can clearly be seen attached to the back right tire. Others Joan Chen as Lin George Lee Cheung as General Narai Clyde Kusatsu as Anek Keye Luke as Prasert Benjamin Lum as Truang Bryan Price as Chan James Saito as Ming Angus Duncan as The General Category:1985 Category:Episode 1985 Category:Season 1 1985